Time, Relationship & Money Management- Ifoghale Efeturi

One powerful secret to personal effectiveness is self leadership; and self leadership can be defined as the ability to plan and achieve your goals. Many times our challenge is not that we don’t have enough resources at our disposal. Our real challenge is that we are not being as resourceful as we need to be. Resourcefulness is the ability to identify, acquire and maximize resources in the best way possible. Time, Relationships & Money are some of the major resources that we need to continually improve in managing if we want to be more successful in achieving our life and career goals. Today I will give you three general tips that are important in managing these three resources afterwards I would tell you a few important things about each of these resources.

The first general tip is Self Discipline. Self discipline is the ability to do what you are supposed to do, when you are supposed to do it, no matter how you feel. We can also add ‘doing it in the way you are supposed to do it’. Your ability to put your feelings under and put the achievement of your goals above is a great mark of your discipline as a person. In his book "The Common Denominator of Success," a great man called E. M. Gray writes that "successful people do what unsuccessful people don't like to do”. He said “successful people have the habit of doing the things failures don't like to do. They don't like doing them either necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose." Self discipline has a way of building your self esteem over time and lack of it has a way of reducing your self esteem also.

The second general tip is Planning. A great and influential man called Bishop David Oyedepo once said that your plan is your map to your greatness. I think that this is so so so true. Planning gives you focus and direction and it reduces wastages and frustrations. It tells you how you would go about achieving what you desire and it gives you a basis to measure your performance and progress. Just as you would not build a house without first drawing out a plan for your building, you cannot successfully embark on a worthwhile venture without first having a plan. It is safer to write or draw out your plan on paper or some other writing device. Writing or drawing out your plans phenomenally increases your chances of executing your plans. Someone once said failure to plan is a plan to fail.

The third general tip is Prioritizing your plan. Commitment is a proof of what your priorities are and your priorities are a reflection of your values. Being committed to your plans is one of the best ways to show that you are serious about attaining your goals and desires and living an effective life. Your ability to set your priorities right and make choices that are in line with your priorities will greatly affect the outcome of your life.

Now let’s talk about Time, Relationships & Money.

Time management is both a skill and a habit that can be learned and developed. It is one of the high standards that every leader should live by. There is nothing as good as having the reputation of someone who is very punctual. Value your time and use it well. Wasting time is a type of suicide because in the long run the quality of your life will be dependent on how you spent your life time. Do things at the right time. Greatly avoid procrastination. One problem with procrastination is that when you don’t do important things at their right time, after a while those things you postponed become urgent things that may make you unable to do some other important things.

The diagram below is an excerpt from Stephen Covey’s book: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He calls it the Time Management Matrix and it show four different ways that people spend their time.

I would like to summarize the table as follows:

Box I - Important Emergencies,

Box II - Preparation/ Replenishing Activities,

Box III - Unimportant Emergencies,

Box IV - Play/Pleasure.

In the book, he said Box II is actually the best way to spend your time. The more you spend time on Box II activities the less you will have emergencies. He advocates listing out all your different responsibilities as a person and planning out time for each responsibility every week. You must also be a bit flexible in the use of your time because of unforeseen circumstances. Like the next point we are about to see, you must also value your relationships with people and have time for people. Have time to rest, take care of your health and replenish your strength.

Now about Relationships, it is very important to note that life was designed by God to be interdependent. Interdependence is the ability to attain outstanding success by relating with other successful people. Outstanding success here refers to success that you may never be able to attain on your own. Knowing how to connect and relate with people is therefore a very important skill and habit that you must possess. Value and respect people genuinely; whether they are your customers, co-workers, bosses, spouses or family members. Show courtesy in your interactions with people. Be polite and respectful. Four words that can help you S.T.E.P up your courtesy are Sorry, Thank you, Excuse me and Please. Use either of them a lot in your conversations. With courtesy you can even say a harsh thing in a nice way.

In the book: Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey talks a lot about the importance of learning how to listen to people. You can’t effectively prescribe solutions for people if you cannot properly diagnose their problems. Listening very well can help you properly diagnose people’s problems. Everyone likes to communicate and relate with people that understand them. Valuing and listening to people will make you understand them better. Think of how to proffer win/win solutions. Exhibit habits and attitudes that will make people trust you. Be courageous but also be considerate. How you see things is not exactly the way those things are. How you see things is because of the way you are. Everybody sees things differently. Try to understand how other people see things and try to work with them to come up with the best solutions or approaches to things. Learn how to handle rejection. Learn how to handle your differences with people.

Now to Money Management I would like to say first of all that money is a reward for meeting needs, creating value and solving problems. So if you can think about needs that you can meet, value you can create and problems you can solve for others, very soon people will be paying you to do those things. Do those things in a very excellent way. A great man and friend of mine called Chiedu Agwuibe once listed out five principles for financial prosperity that I really love and agree with it. He said prosperity comes by working hard, trusting God, giving (to God and to others), saving and investing. In my opinion each of these five points are very very important. The better you can do each of them the more financially prosperous you would become.

Apply a lot of discipline, planning and prioritizing to the way you manage your money. Have percentages for the different ways you want to manage your money and keep improving on your money management efforts. Be a content person. Don’t be extravagant. One of the greatest investments you can make is to invest in increasing your capacity to make more money. Someone once said if you can empty your pocket to fill your brain very soon your brain will empty itself to fill your pocket. Read a lot and learn new skills. Set up your own business. Get more financial management literacy. Keep developing yourself on how to make money, how to save your money and on how to spend and invest your money.

I would like to end this series here by encouraging you to keep learning how to better manage and maximize your Time, Relationships & your Money. Be very purposeful and deliberate in your attitude to these three things. You are the C.E.O of Y.O.U. Be a good entrepreneur of your life and resources. You can achieve and even exceed your life and career goals if only you would be willing to be more strategic about your life and career. I look forward to your great life and career testimonies. Please send me an email via iefeturi@gmail.com and let me know how this series has impacted you. Any other comment or inquiry about this series will also be very much appreciated.

I would like to specially appreciate the Author of Cream Naija, Kigwe Kaiser for both inspiring me to do this series and for giving me his Cream Naija platform to do it. Thank you so much Sir and God Bless you greatly.